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1914 Christmas truce brought near-surreal calm amid bitter conflict

PHOTO: Illustrated London News/The Guardian, Wikimedia CommonsAn artist's depiction of a Christmas truce between British and German soldiers, originally published in the Illustrated London News on January 9, 1915.

It seems almost impossible to imagine now: amid a brutal, relentless war, with opponents literally entrenched on their respective sides of the battlefield, the fighting stopped.

But that’s exactly what happened on Christmas Day, 1914. At various locations along the Western Front, the mostly British and German soldiers stopped fighting. They climbed out of their trenches. And, venturing into No Man’s Land, they greeted their erstwhile enemies, setting aside their differences for a fleeting moment to observe the holiday together. They mingled and shared in a variety of festive activities together, from singing Christmas carols and exchanging gifts, to enjoying a festive meal and even playing football.

Before long, most had returned to their trenches, back to fighting a war that would ultimately drag on for nearly four more years.

British and German troops meeting in No Man’s Land during the unofficial truce on December 26, 1914. (British troops from the Northumberland Hussars, 7th Division, Bridoux-Rouge Banc Sector)Handout photo, Postmedia Merlin archive

Multiple truces, at multiple times

The Christmas Truce of 1914 is actually somewhat of a misnomer: there was never an official truce. While Pope Benedict XV had urged the warring powers to cease hostilities on Christmas, British and German high command were not in favour of a truce for a variety of reasons, chief among these being the fear that too much fraternization among enemy troops would hinder their resolve to fight.

Nevertheless, informal truces broke out on – and around – Christmas Day.

“Today, we tend to think of [the Christmas truce] as an all-encompassing thing, but it’s not,” says Nick Clark, a historian at the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa. “It’s very dangerous to speak in generalities about what happened, other than that there were truces in certain areas that ranged from some agreements to bury the dead, to rather longer truces where there was extensive fraternization, the swapping of small presents…and football matches in some cases.”

Clark adds that it’s important to recognize Christmas 1914 was not the only time when truces occurred during the First World War. While less common in subsequent years, he points to a letter from a Canadian soldier, Ronald MacKinnon, at Vimy from December 1916. “We had a truce on Christmas, and the Germans were quite friendly,” he wrote. “They came over to see us and we traded bully beef for cigars. Christmas was tray bon [sic].”

British and German soldiers fraternising at Ploegsteert, Belgium, on Christmas Day 1914, front of 11th Brigade, 4th Division.Possibly Riflemen Andrew (middle) and Grigg (second from the right, background) of the London Rifle Brigade with troops of the 104th and 106th Saxon RegimentsHandout, Imperial War Museum of London

‘Fancy shaking hands with the enemy!’

The informal nature of the Christmas truces is reflected in the soldiers’ own accounts, which vary considerably depending on where they were situated along the front. But where they did occur, their letters suggest many of them couldn’t believe what was happening. One minute, they were killing each other; the next, they were singing “Silent Night”, sharing a laugh, and exchanging bully beef for cigars.

“There was a truce to bury our dead,” wrote Pte. Ben Calder (who, incidentally, moved to Canada after the war). “We had a short service over the graves, conducted by our minister and the German one. They read the 23rd Psalm and had a short prayer. I don’t think I will ever forget the Christmas Day I spent in the trenches. After the service we were speaking to the Germans and getting souvenirs from them. Fancy shaking hands with the enemy! I suppose you will hardly believe this, but it is the truth.”

“On Christmas Eve,” wrote Pte. H.A.Amy, “their officers told them not to shoot unless the Germans did, and not a shot was fired. The Germans were singing and shouting, “a merry Christmas to you.” As the day broke the enemy would be seen to bob up and down, and as the British did not fire they plucked up courage enough to get out of the trenches. Soon their parapets were lined and our chaps went out and met them and exchanged gift, cigarettes etc. Officers also fraternised. The Germans told them that the English had lost thirty warships and they had only lost two. It only showed that the Germans were being buoyed up with false hopes, and that when they learned the truth no doubt they would get a shock.”

This undated photo provided from the collection of the Cheshire Military Museum shows the diary of World War I soldier Lt. Charles Bertram Brockbank of the Cheshire Regiment and Machine Gun Corps. Brockbank details in his diary a kick around of a soccer ball during what is commonly known as the ‘Christmas Truce of 1914’, a lull in the fighting around Christmas Day on the front lines of the First World War.Cheshire Military Museum, AP Photo

One soldier, identified only as “Fred,” recalled an exchange of cards. “We had a funny experience this morning,” he wrote. “Firing became slack and we had the order not to fire unless the Germans fired. Soon after one of the Germans got out of their trench and called to us to go half-way (our trenches and theirs are about 150 yards apart in places). About a dozen of us went forward and soon all our chaps were out of the trenches shaking hands with the Germans and exchanging cigarettes. One gave me some cigars and biscuits and as I had nothing else handy I gave him Fred and Gert’s Christmas Card as a keepsake. You might tell Fred and Gert when you see them that their card will travel further than they expected.”

Perhaps the most remarkable interactions coming out of these truces were the football games and feasts. Clark points to a match held between the Lancashire Fusiliers and a Saxon regiment around Christmas 1914 (the Germans, as has often been reported, won 3-2). Another, between the Cheshires and another German regiment, was notable for the feast they enjoyed together afterward: they shared a roast pig.

Pte. George Minto, meanwhile, relayed a drastically different account, in which there was in fact no truce being observed. “You don’t want to believe half what is being said about concerts going on between the Allies and the Germans,” he wrote. “It is all lies. We had a very rough time of it for several weeks.”

The Christmas Truce of 1914: German soldiers of the 134th Saxon Regiment photographed by the donor with men of the Royal Warwickshire Regiment in No Man’s Land on the Western Front.Cyril Drummond, Imperial War Museum of London

An example for future generations

The notion that two sides in a bitter conflict, dug into their trenches, would be able to cease hostilities and greet each other as fellow human beings – for however fleeting a moment – seems almost impossible to contemplate now. Technology has forever changed the battlefield, with missile attacks, chemical weaponry and drone strikes becoming increasingly the norm. The impersonal nature of modern warfare risks dehumanizing the sides involved.

Clark stresses the importance of recognizing that a level of camaraderie and mutual respect, particularly between the British and the Germans, existed well into the war and transcended the brutal reality on the ground. Furthermore, the fact that both sides were predominantly Christian, and thus both celebrated Christmas, cannot be understated.

“Many Germans prior to the war had actually worked in England,” says Clark. “There are stories where Germans would say, ‘I wish this would hurry up and they’d end this war. I want to go back to my job as a taxi driver in Birmingham,’ or, ‘I want to go back to being a waiter in Kent.’ So there’s a level of understanding that we perhaps don’t perceive today.” But perhaps the notion that two sides could not only cease their hostilities, but celebrate together, socialize, even play ball, could still be instructive, even today.

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